Blob Mckenzie wrote:I think his es time is fine but I would have liked to have seen him play on the pp a bit more considering it's been a dumpster fire for the last two years. I also thought he was a good potential linemate for 17 but there is zero chance of that happening now with Kesler's impending trade this summer.

Not having him on one of the PP units is asinine. A big body like that w/ excellent playmaking skills, solid skater who can fight for the puck?

Blob Mckenzie wrote:I think his es time is fine but I would have liked to have seen him play on the pp a bit more considering it's been a dumpster fire for the last two years. I also thought he was a good potential linemate for 17 but there is zero chance of that happening now with Kesler's impending trade this summer.

Not having him on one of the PP units is asinine. A big body like that w/ excellent playmaking skills, solid skater who can fight for the puck?

That just puzzled me as well. Sestito was used once and the result was good. However, that experiment did not last very long. I always wonder why Kassian is not used. His big body should create havoc in front of the net.

It's a balance of putting players in a position to succeed and in having them earn top 6 or PP minutes. Someone like Kassian still has to learn how to use his body effectively in all situations. I like how Torts wants him to learn to play the way Higgins does, every shift.

With our lack of PP success I too would like to see Kassian get more PP time. He is an above average passer and has a good shot, to go along with that big body in front of the net. Perhaps the trust factor isn't there yet, like maybe he will take too many penalties on the PP. perhaps we see him there next year.

Kassian's issue is that he is not consistent. He is becoming more consistent shift to shift within games, but what you see one game is not necessarily what you will see the next game. One game he is making smart decisions and good passes, and the next game he isn't moving his feet and trying to hard to make things happen with a big hit.

I think I have seen more consistency from Jensen than we generally do from Kassian. Coaches need to be able to trust players, and I don't think we're there with Kassian yet.

herb wrote:Kassian's issue is that he is not consistent. He is becoming more consistent shift to shift within games, but what you see one game is not necessarily what you will see the next game. One game he is making smart decisions and good passes, and the next game he isn't moving his feet and trying to hard to make things happen with a big hit.

I think I have seen more consistency from Jensen than we generally do from Kassian. Coaches need to be able to trust players, and I don't think we're there with Kassian yet.

You guys all natter on sometimes. How is Kassian any different than any other frikin Canuck player this year?? You're describing characteristics concerning the whole frikin team. How can anyone single Kassian out amongst the group we've seen play this year?? Jeeese It's TORTS TORTS TORTS that is the defining piece around when or if Kassian plays. End of story. (there that's my 'NATTERING' opinion)

Jovocop wrote:That just puzzled me as well. Sestito was used once and the result was good. However, that experiment did not last very long. I always wonder why Kassian is not used. His big body should create havoc in front of the net.

I think Sestito and Kassassian should be used on the PP more. The Sestito experiment worked really well for a couple games, but once it didn't work for a game or so, Torts just abandoned it. He would then just go back to the burr-hank-kesler (maybe dank) up front; those guy would not score for like 100 games, but Torts just keeps throwing them out there. I think Sestito and/or Kass should be used on the PP more often, if anything just to change it up a bit and give us some big bodies in front of the net.

There is obviously something about Kassian that drives coaches nuts that average fan and scribe ain't savy enough to pick up. Last year it was AV's fault but as we can see, with Torts here, that its not just AV. This has been the same story with Kassian since he was a junior. Nothing new here

The CoHo/Kassian trade was one headache for another, although I prefer our migraine over buffalo's

It's comical seeing Kassian get showered with love for getting 4 assists against the worst team in the league

"I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? - Plastics." - The Graduate

RoyalDude wrote:There is obviously something about Kassian that drives coaches nuts that average fan and scribe ain't savy enough to pick up. Last year it was AV's fault but as we can see, with Torts here, that its not just AV. This has been the same story with Kassian since he was a junior. Nothing new here

The CoHo/Kassian trade was one headache for another, although I prefer our migraine over buffalo's

It's comical seeing Kassian get showered with love for getting 4 assists against the worst team in the league

RoyalDude wrote:It's comical seeing Kassian get showered with love for getting 4 assists against the worst team in the league

True RD and I did think of that; however, if it was that easy to do, why didn't our superstars like Dank or Kesler light up the Sabres? Hell, when was the last time any of our superstars light up anybody for that matter? Can't blame the fans to get happy and excited when a young player has a big night, we definitely didn't have enuff to cheer about this season. Also, look at the nite he had. It's not like his assists were 2nd assists where he just passed it off to a guy like Hank, he was the guy who found the open man that led to the goal. 2 of the goals he was skating out from behind the net to find the open guy in the slot (Matthias + Richardson), old school Gretzky plays. OK, I'll admit the Weber goal was a bit lucky, just a regular breakout play, but he did feed the open man nicely for a good rush up the ice. The goal to get excited about was the setup he made on the Booth goal. It was a beaut as he just used 1 hand to fight off a defender (Bertuzzi like). Those are the types of plays u want to see out of a guy with his package and honestly, there's not a lot of guys in the NHL who can do that. I think the fans should be stoked and the coach should give the kid more chances to show what he can do.

We have seen incremental improvement from Zach this season. Whereas last year I think he was a marginal third line player, this year he looks like he belongs more often than not. At the beginning of the year I thought a 15-15-30 season from Kassian would be a success, and through the 64 games we've seen of him this season he is pretty much on that pace.

Zack's shot is pretty damn good and I want to see more of it. One disappointment is that his shot total is very low.